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Darren Aronofsky's 'Noah' Epic May End Up Shooting This Summer?

Darren Aronofsky has never been one to get films easily afloat, per se, and may have just as many sinking or dead in the water projects as he does completed ones (granted his completed films are brilliant masterpieces including The Fountain). But his latest planned project, the biblical epic Noah, could be setting sail as soon as this summer. According to a little bit of the telephone game with cinematographer and frequent collaboratorMatthew Libatique (who worked with Aronofsky on Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan and nearly The Wolverine) it sounds like the film could be shooting this summer.

This news coming hot on the heels of the recent news that Steven Spielberg was close to signing a deal to direct a Moses biopic, so there seems to be a lot of Biblical tales getting tossed around Hollywood. But according to Libatique (via a conversation with Hollywood Elsewhere‘s Jeffrey Wells, relayed on the Oscar Poker podcast. Hat-tip to The Playlist), Noah should be the first out of the gate starting its voyage in July in New York and Iceland, with a release set for some time in 2013. Casting is currently underway for the titular ark builder, as well as the film's antagonist. Here's what Wells had to say about the film:

"It’s got a guy in his 40's so it’s not going to be young. It’s going to be 40's. And there’s a big villain part, gotta have a villain in the story of Noah. Someone who’s saying ‘Listen, don’t listen to him. We’re fine! We don’t need to build any ark. Don’t be so alarmist! Don’t be so fundamentalist.’ You know? One of those guys. So it sounded like a lot of fun, actually.”

Originally, Christian Bale was attached but had a prior commitment to the back-to-back films he starring in for Terrence Malick. Now Michael Fassbender's name is being thrown around but he has Twelve Years A Slave - his third film with Steve McQueen - slated to shoot around the same time so only time will tell that to be truth or not. And of course this is all a bit of hearsay. I can imagine it going down like this; Aronofsky mentioned to Libatique to ready himself since they might be shooting this summer if the stars aligned and Libatique candidly relayed that to Wells in a conversation and so on and so forth. You know how it goes. With these things, until they call action and the camera is rolling on that first day, nothing is guaranteed. Either way, there's no doubt that Aronofsky wants to gather animals two by two and send them sailing. Hopefully he's that much closer to making this a reality. Stay tuned!

You do realize this is a fairy tale? It would be impossible to fit every animal in the world on a boat...

Peloquin on Jan 28, 2012

7

Yeah But I was asking what it states in the story and I thought most species or some of them were 5 or 7 per not 2. And wondered also if they were staying true to the story, the source material.

Loser on Jan 28, 2012

8

No, It's mostly two of a kind. There were only sevens of specific animals like sheep. Also he obviously wouldn't need to collect sea creatures... though that might make an interesting twist in some revisionist version.

Outlander on Jan 28, 2012

9

Whats with the odd numbers? Did God deem that there should be one of every animal not gettin lucky or is it a tag team situation?

Richie G on Jan 28, 2012

10

Noah at 40 is young. He lived for hundreds of years.

Chjapa on Jan 28, 2012

11

Pics or it didn't happen.

Max Renn on Jan 28, 2012

12

Good point.. except I think they already figured that, because he was 600 years old according to the Bible when the flood came, and then lived for about 350 years more...

I'm almost certain that the Villian in Noah's story from the bible was WATER. Lot's of it.
I feel like people try to use the big stories like Noah's Ark and Moses to try to make these big epics, when they're overlooking one of the most epic/movie worthy parts of the bible. The story of Joshua. Joshua was put in charge of the Israelites after Moses and he lead them into a ridiculous slaughter of the tribes of Canaan. There were many enemies, there were GIANTS too. The Israelites were the most hardcore warriors during that period in history and they fought and slaughtered thousands upon thousands in their campaign.
Hollywood keeps wanting to make bible stories into something resembling 300. The story of Joshua and his conquest of Canaan is that story. Too bad hollywood won't take a chance on a story the general public doesn't know all that well. Although i'd be happy to see Noah's Ark be made... I think if you're going to turn a bible story into something resembling 300, which they are, Joshua is the story.